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PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Tesla Cybertruck crash kills 3 students in NorCal
Three students were killed after a Tesla Cybertruck crashed and caught fire in Piedmont in Northern California.
LOS ANGELES - The parents of a college student killed in a Tesla crash say she was trapped in the car as it burst into flames because of a design flaw that made it nearly impossible for her to open the door, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.
What we know:
A lawsuit has been filed in Alameda County Superior Court by the parents of Krysta Tsukahara, a 19-year-old college student who died in a Tesla Cybertruck crash last November. The suit alleges that a flaw in the car's door design prevented her from escaping as the vehicle burned.
According to the lawsuit, Tsukahara was in the back of the Cybertruck when the driver, who was intoxicated, crashed into a tree in a suburb of San Francisco.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: 3 California high school graduates die in fiery Cybertruck crash, sources say
Tsukahara, along with friends Soren Dixon, 19, and Jack Nelson, 20, died. A fourth person was rescued after a bystander broke a window.
The lawsuit claims that Tesla has known about this door design issue for years but did not address it.
The legal action coincides with a separate federal investigation opened by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) into complaints about Tesla doors.
The backstory:
The lawsuit is the latest legal challenge against Tesla related to safety issues.
The company's doors have been a focal point in several crash cases because their battery-powered unlocking mechanism can fail in a fire, and the manual releases are difficult for passengers to locate.
In a separate case in August, a Florida jury awarded more than $240 million to the family of another college student who was killed in a runaway Tesla years ago.
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The NHTSA's current probe into stuck-door complaints was initiated last month after drivers reported being unable to open back doors to free their children, with some having to break windows to get them out.
The Source: The information in this article is based on a lawsuit filed in Alameda County Superior Court, which cites a federal investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) into complaints about Tesla doors. The initial reporting on the lawsuit was provided by The New York Times. The Associated Press contributed.